About Me

Born in August 1887 in Awsworth Notts, to Henry and Sarah Lamin. Elder Sisters Catherine (Kate), Mary Esther and Sarah Anne(Annie) and Elder brother John (Jack).
Educated at Awsworth Board School, just outside Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England.
I served with honour in the 9th Battalion York & Lancaster Regiment seeing front line action in Flanders and Northern Italy from the end of 1916 to January 1920.

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Link to The very first Posts

Helpful Hints

From 1st March 1918 the leap year in 2008 takes the synchronicity of the days and dates away. Decision: I will publish letters a day in advance so that the days of the week coincide, rather than the date.

"New" readers please note that the entries on each page are in reverse order, oldest at the bottom.

It doesn't work quite like a book. To make sense of the whole blog, take the link to the "First Posts", work from the bottom entry upwards and then take the "Newer posts" link at the bottom of each page for the next installment.

28 comments:

Interestingly, 2&4 also seem to fit together. Maybe page 3 is intended as parenthetical information which was written after the letter was completed, with no regard for matching the finish of the sentence from 2 to 4.

I have a theory to share: Perhaps Harry wrote "...they left the rum bottle out which they never forget to take with them" Could he have written the words "with them" on a fresh sheet of paper, been interrupted, then continued on the other side of the sheet "Their is five or six parts..." ? Reading from page 3 to page 4 omitting "with them" seems to be logical. "A fighting patrol mostly has a lewis gun and three or four of the team. Our batt has had no luck yet.."

Bravo! I was put onto your blog by a friend the daughter of Tom Thourston, who has created a blog following your model based upon a family member Theo, adoughboy.blogspot.com. It has been an eye breaker to look at the letters in the original, but a great idea. You are doing important work.

I am interested in French blogs on WW1. Has anyone mentioned any or can you help me find them? I speak French.

page 2 and 4 seems to be a perfect match to me and I feel as though 3 isnt supposted to be there at all, Also the last 2 pages are folded the same so i think that #3 might be a Post script with a missing page?

Actually, I am beginning to think that you have a sheet too many. Could the third page be part of a different letter? Then the transition from P2 to P4 reads better " ... they left the rum bottle out which they never forget to take with them ...". I think I agree with the other commenter who thinks Harry meant "accept" instead of "except". It would make sense, when speaking of an older person, "that we can accept dad being bad". Just noticed the creases on P3 - the diagonal crease from P2 to P3 does not continue and the centre crease from P3 to P4 does not align. Curioser and curioser ...

Considered: I have leido the news of your blog and it seems me facinante, my ingles is very bad and I cannot read blog very well... that seems to you a translation to the Castilian? from already thank you very much Federico Schulze datasitesweb@hotmail.com

As a history student I really appreciate this touching letters because they help one to really submerge into what was happening at the time.It is impressive that one of the most important newspapers of Argentina wrote an article and had a link to this website.great job!

Many thanks for sharing such an invaluable historical document. It is extremely interesting.Business opportunity: You should include a Rum producer in your banners. Maybe I am not the only one that decided to drink a bottle while reading :)Best regards from Toronto.

Hallo, I am from the Czech republic. I found randomely your website. It is very interesting, I enjoyed it very much, because my grand - grandfather fought in the First world war too. He used to talk about it very much. During 1918 he served in Italy, opposite of your hero. I am looking forward next letter. Thank you - and excuse my bad English - at school I was studying Russian only :-).

Harry just left off a period at the end of the last on the second page. Or he lost his train of thought between completing the second page and starting to write on a fresh sheet of paper, the third page. The third and fourth pages make sense to me. I don't understand what the fuss is all about. It is not like he has all the time in the world to proof these letters or use a spelling/grammer checker in a computer program.

As Nick said on Jan 30, the only thing that is missing is a period (full stop ex America). The forgotten bottle is a minimalist description of the hectic six crossing withdrawal from the front lines. One learns this kind of code when faced with censorship. The letter reads very smoothly as is and, since it is the only copy we have, that is all to the good.